FEDERAL HEALTH UPDATE
July 17, 2009Produced by Kate Connelly Theroux in collaboration with the Institute of Federal Health Care (IFHC) To subscribe, please visit http://fedhealthinst.org/subscriber.cfm. Sponsored by
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Executive and Congressional News
The money will go to buy vaccine ingredients, to help health officials plan immunization campaigns and to help get candidate vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The money comes from $7.65 billion Congress already appropriated to the Department of Health and Human Services for pandemic (H1N1) 2009. The World Health Organization announced
that pandemic (H1N1) 2009 is spreading so rapidly that it now is pointless
to count every case. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_
Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA, is founder and CEO of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in Bayou La Batre, Ala. She is immediate past-chair of the Federation of State Medical Boards of the United States and previously served as associate dean for rural health at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine. In 2002, she became president of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, making her the first African American woman to be president of a state medical society in the United States. Dr. Benjamin holds a BS in chemistry
from Xavier University, New Orleans. She was in the second class at
Morehouse School of Medicine and received her MD degree from the University
of Alabama, Birmingham, as well as an MBA from Tulane University.
Dr. Lurie, an internationally recognized leader in public health, most recently served as co-director of the RAND Corporation Center for Domestic and International Health Security, senior natural scientist and professor of policy analysis at the RAND Corporation. Dr. Lurie has spent the last several
years working with
HHS, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and state and local health
departments on pandemic influenza preparedness and other public health
issues. Previously, she served as principal deputy assistant secretary
of health at HHS.
During the hearing, Valerie C. Melvin, director, Information Management & Human Capital Issues, GAO, reported that the GAO has found that DoD and VA have not accomplished nearly enough in their efforts to achieve an interoperable medical record. According to the GAO, many key positions within DoD continue to be filled on an interim basis permanent personnel are sought. Melvin testified that DoD and VA have not yet created a comprehensive — and essential — plan to guide future activities. Melvin said she does not believe that the departments’ difficulties are related to technological deficiencies, but rather represent management problems. Navy Rear Adm. Gregory A. Timberlake, acting director, DoD/VA Interagency Program Office, also testified at the hearing, describing activities to date of the DoD/VA Interagency Program Office (IPO), which maintains overall management oversight of the interoperability efforts of the two departments. He asserted that the IPO and the two departments have made significant steps towards complete interoperability. Mary Ann Rockey, program executive officer/deputy chief information officer (acquisition), Military Health System, DoD, testified that hat DoD and VA share information for more than 4 million individuals and assured the subcommittee that the two departments are moving slowly but surely towards the September 2010 deadline for a completely interoperable system. Military Health Care News
This is the third generation (T-3) of TRICARE managed care support contracts. They are worth an estimated $55.5 billion over the base and five options periods. Transition from the current contracts is scheduled to begin immediately, with the start of health care delivery under the new contracts anticipated to be April 1, 2010. The transition will occur during the base period, and health care delivery will begin with the first option. The TRICARE West region retained its current contractor, TriWest Healthcare Alliance Corp. The selected contractors in both North and South are new. Aetna Government Health Plans, Hartford, Conn., was selected for the North Region, where Health Net Federal Services is the current contractor. UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services, Minnetonka, Minn., was selected for the South Region, where Humana Military Healthcare Services is the current contractor. States included in each region and
other contract information can be found at a special Web page at http://www.tricare.mil/ The T-3 contracts feature financial incentives to encourage exceptional customer service; high quality care; detection of fraud, waste and abuse; increased electronic claims processing; better program management, improved preventive care, and cost savings. To apply these incentives eqitably, TRICARE said it has improved methods to measure and assess network provider, beneficiary and military treatment facility commander satisfaction. As with the current contracts, the
new contracts require prime service areas around Military Treatment
Facilities and Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) sites. However, under
T-3, some prime service areas may be discontinued, and as a result some
beneficiaries will no longer be offered Prime. These beneficiaries still
retain TRICARE coverage under the Standard or Extra plan. TRICARE Standard
is the most flexible of the TRICARE options and is available everywhere.
TRICARE Extra is a discount given to TRICARE Standard beneficiaries
when they use a TRICARE network provider. Officials remind beneficiaries
that both TRICARE Prime and Standard are excellent options with high
satisfaction rates.
On July 13, 2009, DoD awarded three health care contracts worth more than $55 billion in its TRICARE program for military members, their families and survivors. WPS will do claims processing and other subcontracting work associated with the contracts that were awarded to Aetna Government Health Plans in the coverage area’s North Region and TriWest Healthcare Alliance in the West Region. WPS Insurance is Wisconsin’s only
not-for-profit insurer offering health plans statewide to the public
and private sectors. http://www.channel3000.com/
TriServ Alliance, LLC is an independent,
community-based company created to serve military health care beneficiaries
in the South Region, which includes Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia,
portions of Kentucky, adjacent to Fort Campbell, Louisiana, Mississippi,
Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and all but extreme western Texas.
TriServ is headquartered in Atlanta and has planned local offices
in Jackson, Miss.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and San Antonio, Texas. http://news.prnewswire.com/
“Health Net Federal Services is disappointed not to be selected by TRICARE Management Activity (TMA) for the Managed Care Support Contractor in the TRICARE North Region. We anticipate that a debriefing will be conducted within the next couple weeks. We will consider the information provided at the debriefing, and within two weeks following, we will determine whether we will accept or challenge the award decision,” said Steven Tough, president, Health Net Federal Services. Since the loss of the TRICARE contract,
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services pushed Health Net Inc. (HNT)
lower while Moody's Investors Service put the company on watch for downgrade.
“Humana Military is disappointed with the decision by the Department of Defense and looks forward to obtaining further clarity via a debriefing on the bidding process. Our company will evaluate its strategic options with respect to the government’s decision, including protesting the award, and will act expeditiously to best position Humana for continued success.” Since the announcement, Standard
& Poor's Ratings Services downgraded Humana Inc. (HUM) while Moody's
Investors Services put the health insurer on watch for downgrade.
TRICARE beneficiaries who have children
with autism spectrum disorders and live within the pilot program areas
can subscribe to this e-mail service at http://www.tprmedia.com/ The service begins when a patient is diagnosed with ASD. For the first eight weeks after the diagnosis, the patient’s family receives customized weekly e-mails, followed by bi-weekly e-mails sent throughout the first year after diagnosis. The e-mails focus on coping, family life, research, resources, and others’ experiences with ASD — to support the family and let them know they are not alone. Hospital-specific and Department of Defense “need-to-know” information is included in the e-mails, along with local and national resources. The program allows the military treatment facilities to provide authoritative information for patients’ families by e-mail. For information about TRICARE programs
for beneficiaries with autism spectrum disorders, go to http://www.tricare.mil/echo and select the link for TRICARE’s Autism Services
Demonstration.
These findings came to light after a group of researchers from the Military Health System and the National Institutes of Health compared cancer rates between members of the armed forces and the general U.S. population. Cancer risk may be affected by multiple factors. It is known that certain behaviors or exposures such as tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, poor diet, obesity, radiation and certain chemicals are associated with cancer. Researchers hypothesize that the military population may be different from the general population in its exposure to these factors, which could contribute to the differing cancer incidence rates. The study examines the effects of cancer on military members by comparing the frequency of six kinds of cancer—lung, colorectal, prostate, breast, testicular and cervical—between military and civilian populations. It focused on adults aged 20 to 59 years old who were diagnosed with one of the six cancers between 1990 and 2004. Data were taken from two databases: the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program of the NCI, and the DoD’s Automated Central Tumor Registry (ACTUR). The research team found that certain cancers – colorectal, lung and cervical – appeared less frequently in the military population than in the general population. They also found that breast cancer among women and prostate cancer among men are more common in the military than in the general population. Testicular cancer appeared to affect both military and civilian populations equally. An article about the studies’ findings
was published in the June issue of Cancer,
Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention.
Keesler Medical Center is one of the largest medical centers in the Air Force. Its diagnostic imaging department boasts a wide array of state-of-the-art equipment, including the Air Force's only 3-Tesla MRI system. The Air Force chose IMPAX primarily because of Agfa HealthCare's ability to meet its stringent network security standards. IMPAX security features include armoring, encryption, access control, auditing and compliance with regional legislation. These features will allow the Air Force to reach its eventual goal of securely connecting and consolidating data and imaging archives located at multiple regional facilities onto a single point of storage. The ability to span multi-site environments enables a longitudinal view of the patient record, which is particularly important given the mobility of military service personnel. Agfa HealthCare is a recognized leader in PACS security, a critical component of interconnecting facilities from the military branches and Veterans Affairs (VA). Last year, the company became the first vendor to earn an accreditation based on rigorous Department of Defense guidelines that allows the latest version of IMPAX to be installed on Air Force networks. In addition to providing the high levels of security that the Air Force required, Agfa HealthCare was able to meet the Air Force's aggressive delivery and deployment schedule. Agfa HealthCare’s technology is
installed in more than 160 military and VA facilities, including 14
sites in Europe, five of the VA's multi-facility Veterans Integrated
Service Networks (VISNs), and more than 30 Navy ships. http://www.edubourse.com/
The article, “The Department of Defense Global Laboratory-Based Influenza Surveillance,” praises the DoD program specifically for its success in drawing disease specimens from a pool of 27 countries, compiling epidemiological data and efficiently contributing samples to help develop some of today’s most powerful vaccines — notably influenza vaccine. The Defense Department created GEIS
in 1997 to alleviate national concerns about emerging infectious diseases.
The system detects new influenza viruses, identifies, isolates and controls
outbreaks, determines the incidence of influenza-like illness among
sentinel military populations, and conducts global, operationally relevant,
laboratory-based influenza surveillance.
Study investigators aim to move quickly to identify risk and protective factors for suicide among soldiers and provide a science base for effective and practical interventions to reduce suicide rates and address associated mental health problems. The study is a direct response to the Army's request to NIMH to enlist the most promising scientific approaches for addressing the rising suicide rate among soldiers. A memorandum of agreement between NIMH and the Army, signed in October 2008, authorized NIMH to undertake the investigation with Army funding. Suicide rates among Army personnel have risen substantially since the beginning of the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan despite major surveillance and intervention efforts introduced by the Army to prevent suicides over this period. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death among 25- to 44-year-olds in the United States. Historically, the suicide rate has been lower in the military than among civilians. In 2008 that pattern was reversed, with the suicide rate in the Army exceeding the age-adjusted rate in the civilian population (20.2 out of 100,000 vs. 19.2). While the stresses of the current wars, including long and repeated deployments and post-traumatic stress, are important potential contributors for research to address, suicidal behavior is a complex phenomenon. The study will examine a wide range of factors related to, and independent of military service, including unit cohesion, exposure to combat-related trauma, personal and economic stresses, family history, childhood adversity and abuse, and overall mental health. This research will encompass active duty Army personnel across all phases of service, including members of the National Guard and Reserves. Soldiers' confidentiality will be protected as investigators explore the nature of risk and protective factors and the timing of events that could influence risk, such as time since enlistment and deployment status and history. Although planned to continue for five years, the study is designed to be able to identify quickly potential risk factors that can inform the continuing research project and the Army's ongoing efforts to prevent suicide among its personnel. The goal is to develop evidence-based interventions that can be put into action quickly to reverse the increase in suicide rates in the military. For more information
about the study, please visit http://www.nih.gov/news/
The final issues were announced at the conclusion of the AW2 Symposium, which took place from July 8-14 in San Antonio. The AW2 Symposium is part of the Army’s overall mission to improve care of wounded, injured and ill soldiers based on the needs and input of wounded soldiers and their families. The final 2009 AW2 Symposium issues were chosen from more than 70 topics that were discussed in focus groups with categories including: medical, careers, family, and Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). For the last five years, AW2 has assisted and advocated for the most severely wounded, injured and ill soldiers, veterans, and their families by providing personalized support for as long as it takes, wherever they are located – regardless of their military status. Personalized support is provided
through more than 120 local AW2 Advocates who connect soldiers and veterans
with resources and assist in their transition to life post-injury. AW2
assists the unique population of soldiers who have, or are expected
to receive, an Army disability rating or 30 percent of greater in one
or more specific categories or a combined rating of 50 percent or greater
for conditions that are the result of combat or are combat related.
Typical injuries include limb loss, burns, post traumatic stress disorder,
traumatic brain injury, paralysis and vision loss. https://www.aw2.army.mil/ Veterans Health Care News
Sox-Harris, a health services researcher, psychologist, and statistician at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, is being recognized for his work on how to measure the success of mental health and substance abuse treatment programs. In his study, he showed that existing metrics bear little relation to patients' actual improvement. He has developed alternative ways of measuring success that have more to do with whether patients are actually recovering. The awards, established in 1996, are given each year for "innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology" and a commitment to community service. Winners receive up to five years of continued research funding from their respective agencies. Sox-Harris received his bachelor's
and master's degrees in psychology from Alaska Pacific University, as
well as a master's degree in statistics and doctorate in counseling
psychology from Stanford University.
Concord Hospital is a centrally located regional medical center that offers traditional acute care services in 42 medical specialties. The expanded partnership will allow VA to provide coordinated care and services equivalent to a general medical and surgical hospital locally within New Hampshire. Currently, more than 105,000 veterans live in the six counties served by VAMC Manchester. Since 1999 VA patients who needed immediate hospitalization but were able to safely travel by ambulance were transported to VA medical centers in Massachusetts or Vermont. Now they will be able to remain closer to home and family. VA will have staff located at Concord who will ensure coordination of care for the veterans admitted to Concord Hospital as they transfer back to VA services after discharge. Last year, VA spent more than $300
million in New Hampshire on behalf of the state’s 132,000 veterans. In
addition to the medical center in Manchester, VA operates outpatient
clinics in Conway, Littleton, Portsmouth, Somersworth and Tilton, and
a Vet Center in Manchester.
The contract was awarded to the C3T Construction Company of Milwaukee, a service-disabled, Veteran-owned small business. The 67,000-square-foot building will have a connecting tunnel, providing access to the hospital. and will replace a smaller unit in the main hospital building. Design and construction of the center will overlap, and the project is expected to be finished in less than two years. The two-story structure will provide 38 beds and outpatient services. The additional space is designed to improve accessibility, privacy and independence for patients; improve efficiency of staff; and increase space for physical and recreational therapy, a specialty clinic, a kitchen and administration. Funding for the project was appropriated in fiscal year 2007. About 42,000 Americans with serious
spinal cord injuries or disorders are veterans eligible for medical
care and other benefits from VA. The department provided a full range
of care to nearly 26,000 veterans with spinal cord injuries and disorders
in 2008 and specialty care to about 13,000 of these veterans.
Previous studies had found that 15 percent to 20 percent of military service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have developed post-traumatic stress disorder, but that research has not fully explored the potential risk the disorder holds for dementia, said Dr. Kristine Yaffe, chief of geriatric psychiatry at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center and lead author of the research. In the study, researchers followed about 181,000 veterans age 55 and older in the VA's National Patient Care Database. About 30 percent of these veterans had post-traumatic stress disorder. The researchers found that about 11 percent of the veterans with the disorder developed new cases of dementia over the seven-year study period, compared with about 7 percent of those who did not have a post-traumatic stress disorder diagnosis. Even when researchers filtered out for potentially confounding factors such as other brain injuries and depression, the risk remained nearly double for the veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. The Alzheimer's Association reports that 5.3 million Americans are living with the disorder, and that some half a million new patients are diagnosed each year. The disease is now the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S. overall, and there is no treatment to prevent, delay or reverse the degeneration, which remains difficult to diagnose, particularly at early stages. Unfortunately, researchers
do not yet understand the relationship between the two disorders. http://latimesblogs.latimes.
The contract provides nearly $26 million to McCarthy Building Companies Inc. to replace an old, seismically unsafe building at Palo Alto. The 70,000-square-foot facility also will care for acute psychiatry patients now treated at VA’s Menlo Park campus. Last year, VA spent nearly $7.3 billion
in California on behalf of the state’s 2 million Veterans. VA operates
10 major medical centers in the state, 50 outpatient clinics, 22 Vet
Centers and eight national cemeteries.
In Healthcare Inspection: Review of Veterans Health Administration Residential Mental Health Care Facilities, the VA's inspector general concluded that some inpatient psychological and psychiatric programs lacked adequate staff, oversupplied patients with potentially harmful medications and failed to monitor patients' adherence to treatment plans both in the hospital and after discharge. No facilities are named in the report on the investigation, which was prompted by a number of overdose deaths among patients of a Los Angeles VA mental care program during 2006 and 2007. To reach the findings and recommendations, Inspector General George J. Opfer and his staff reviewed 933 patient records, visited 20 facilities and surveyed all residential mental health programs. Among the findings were that five Veterans Integrated Service Networks failed to offer services in every recommended category, only about one-fourth of surveyed programs offered services specifically geared toward the needs of Iraq War veterans, and nearly half of patients left residential care without verifiable plans for the safe use of medications such as narcotic painkillers. Additionally, 11 percent of patients received prescriptions for up to a month of medications with a high likelihood for abuse when those patients were supposed to receive only seven-day supplies of medications. The report made 10 recommendations for improving the deficiencies, with which VA's Acting Under Secretary for Health Dr. Gerald M. Cross concurred. Health Care News
The funds will be used to place additional orders for bulk H1N1 antigen and adjuvant on existing contracts with Sanofi Pasteur, MedImmune, GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis. The vaccine ingredients will become a part of the pandemic stockpile, for use if a vaccination campaign is necessary. Antigen is the active ingredient in a vaccine that causes the human body’s immune system to develop antibodies that help fight an invading virus. Depending on the results of clinical studies, adjuvant could be added to a vaccine to boost the immune system’s response and potentially reduce the amount of antigen necessary for the body to recognize and fight a virus. In May, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius directed approximately $1 billion to be used for the development of a vaccine and for clinical studies to determine dose level and assess the safety and effectiveness of potential vaccines. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) in the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response established the existing contracts with these companies in 2004 as part of the National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza. More information about this contract
action is available at https://www.
On July 16, NIH hosted Wikimedia staff and volunteers working in the sciences for an all-day event on its Bethesda campus. Participants learned about the philosophy and mechanics of Wikipedia. The goal is to improve public knowledge about health, science and medicine. The international foundation has never before worked with a federal agency or a health sciences institution. NIH and the Wikimedia Foundation partnership aims to increase the availability of accurate medical and health information available to the public. At the same time, they hope to establish strategies to interlace the distinct cultures of Wikipedia and the research community. After the Wikipedia Academy, NIH
subject matter experts will be able to contribute to Wikipedia and also
help develop best practices for future sessions. Instructions about
how to contribute, including video of the Wikipedia Academy at NIH,
will be available on the NIH and the Wikipedia Web sites for scientists
across the country.
The National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) also released the first progress report outlining the impact of the CTSA program in its first two years. This national network of medical research institutions is working to accelerate the process that develops laboratory discoveries into treatments for patients, to engage communities in clinical research and to train a new generation of clinical and translational researchers. Launched in 2006, this network now includes awardees in 26 states. When the program is fully implemented, it will support approximately 60 CTSAs across the nation. The first CTSA progress report released highlights the innovations, collaborations and partnerships that emerged from the CTSA consortium from 2006 through 2008. Included are summaries of how CTSAs are enabling researchers to work in unprecedented ways to advance medical research across many disease areas and conditions, including cancer, neurological diseases, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. To view the full report, visit www.ncrr.nih.gov/ctsa/ To view descriptions of the CTSA
awardees, visit www.ncrr.nih.gov/ctsa2009.
The guidelines in this document are targeted to local, state and federal agencies and provide model practices used in foodborne disease outbreaks, including planning, detection, investigation, control and prevention. Local and state agencies vary in their approach to, experience with, and capacity to respond to foodborne disease outbreaks. The guidelines are intended to give all agencies a common foundation from which to work and to provide examples of the key activities that should occur during the response to outbreaks of foodborne disease. The guidelines were developed by a broad range of contributors from local, state and federal agencies with expertise in epidemiology, environmental health, laboratory science and communications. The guidelines are not intended to replace current procedure manuals for responding to outbreaks. Instead, they are designed to be used as a reference for comparison with existing procedures, to fill in gaps and update site-specific procedures, to provide models for new procedures where they do not exist, and to provide training to program staff. CIFOR is a multidisciplinary partnership organized to increase collaboration among food safety officials at all levels of government and in all areas of the country with the ultimate goal of reducing the burden of foodborne illness in the United States. For more information about CIFOR,
please visit www.cifor.us.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius released these new data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample — the largest, all-payer emergency department database in the United States. The database is managed by AHRQ and generates national estimates on the number of emergency department visits in all community hospitals, by region, urban/rural location, teaching status, ownership and trauma designation. It also provides in-depth information on acute management of patients for all visits, including why patients were seen in the emergency department, the treatments they received, what happened to them at the end of the visit (admitted to the hospital, discharged home, transferred to another hospital, died in the emergency room or left against medical advice), the charge for their care and who was billed. The Nationwide Emergency Department Sample contains 26 million records from emergency department visits from approximately 1,000 community hospitals nationwide. This represents 20 percent of all U.S. hospital emergency departments. The database also provides weighted calculations for national estimates of the 120 million ED visits in 2006. AHRQ also released its latest Nationwide Inpatient Sample — the largest, most powerful database on hospital care in the United States, covering all patients, regardless of their type of insurance or whether they were insured. The 2007 Nationwide Inpatient Sample provides users with an in-depth look at why patients were hospitalized, the treatments and procedures they received and what happened to them at discharge. Researchers can use the Nationwide Inpatient Sample to examine trend data as far back as 1988. The 2007 Nationwide Inpatient Sample is based on discharge data from 8 million hospital stays at more than 1,000 community hospitals. The two databases, as well as the 2006 Kids' Inpatient Database on pediatric inpatient care, are part of AHRQ's Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), a federal-state-industry partnership for building a standardized, multi-state health data system. HCUP databases can
be accessed by using the AHRQ online query tool, HCUPnet. Researchers and analysts who
need the most in-depth data should contact the HCUP Central Distributor
about purchasing the 2006 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample and
the 2007 Nationwide Inpatient Sample datasets and for further information
about their composition and technical requirements. http://www.ahrq.gov/news/
By systematically collecting brain imaging data from hundreds of subjects, the Human Connectome Project (HCP) will yield insight into how brain connections underlie brain function, and will open up new lines of inquiry for human neuroscience. Investigators are invited to submit detailed proposals to carry out the HCP, which will be funded at up to $6 million per year for five years. The HCP is the first of three Blueprint Grand Challenges, projects that address major questions and issues in neuroscience research. The Blueprint Grand Challenges are intended to promote major leaps in the understanding of brain function, and in approaches for treating brain disorders. The three Blueprint Grand Challenges to be launched in 2009 and 2010 address:
Scientists have studied the relationship between the structure and function of the human brain since the 1800s. Some parts of the brain serve basic functions such as movement, sensation, emotion, learning and memory. Others are more important for uniquely human functions such as abstract thinking. The connections between brain regions are important for shaping and coordinating these functions, but scientists know little about how different parts of the human brain connect. In the HCP, researchers will optimize
and combine state-of-the-art brain imaging technologies to probe axonal
pathways and other brain connections. In recent years, sophisticated
versions of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have emerged that are capable
of looking beyond the brain's gross anatomy to find functional connections.
The grants were funded by the recent supplemental appropriations bill that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on June 24, 2009. A total of $260 million in Public Health Emergency Response Grants and $90 million in Hospital Preparedness Grants will be distributed nationwide. Public Health Emergency Response Grants help state public health departments perform a variety of functions, including preparing for potential vaccination campaigns, implementing strategies to reduce people’s exposure to the 2009 novel H1N1 flu and improving influenza surveillance and investigations. The Hospital Preparedness Grants enhance the ability of hospitals and health care systems to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. Local outbreaks of the novel H1N1 virus have produced a surge of patients at hospitals, and these grants will help ensure hospitals are ready for future outbreaks that may impact their community. A list of funding by state is available
at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/
This guidance was developed in an effort to ensure that medical offices and other outpatient facilities providing routine, episodic, and/or chronic healthcare services can manage an increased demand for services in the midst of a novel H1N1 influenza outbreak. For the list, please visit: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/
"This legislation includes a broad range of provisions that are key to effective, comprehensive health system reform," said J. James Rohack, MD, AMA president. "We urge the House committees of jurisdiction to pass the bill for consideration by the full House." For more information, please visit http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/ Reserve/Guard
Reports/Policies
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If you need further information on any of the items in the Federal Health Update, please contact Kate Connelly Theroux at (703) 447-3257 or by e-mail at katetheroux@fedhealthinst.org. To subscribe, please visit http://fedhealthinst.org/subscriber.cfm. To unsubscribe, please send an email to newsletter@fedhealthinst.org with UNSUBSCRIBE as the subject. Back issues availiable at Federal Health Update Archives. |
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